Robert Fraser – författare

A classic study of the beliefs and institutions of mankind, and the progress through magic and religion to scientific thought, The Golden Bough has a unique status in modern anthropology and literature. First published in 1890, The Golden Bough was eventually issued in a twelve-volume edition (1906-15) which was abridged in 1922 by the author and his wife. That abridgement has never been reconsidered for a modern audience. In it some of the more controversial passages were dropped, including Frazer's daring speculations on the Crucifixion of Christ. For the first time this one-volume edition restores Frazer's bolder theories and sets them within the framework of a valuable introduction and notes. A seminal work of modern anthropolgy, The Golden Bough also influenced many twentieth-century writers, including D H Lawrence, T S Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis. Its discussion of magical types, the sacrificial killing of kings, the dying god, and the scapegoat is given fresh pertinence in this new edition. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The poet David Gascoyne (1916-2001) led a life as surreal as his early poems. At eighteen he drafted the manifesto of the English Surrealist Group and at nineteen he published what remains an authoritative account of the international movement. He translated for Salvador Dalì and crossed swords with André Breton; the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London was largely his brainchild. During the war he toured as an actor, embraced religious existentialism and became, in the words of John Lehmann, 'the most important philosophic poet of our time'. After the war he wrote for radio, painted, cooked, and went mad. The journals he kept during his periods of mental instability are masterpieces of the bizarre. Gascoyne found unexpected happiness in late middle age, emerging as an elder statesman of British poetry. Robert Fraser contends that, through all the twists and turns of his variegated existence, Gascoyne strove for candour and truth of self-expression. With equivalent candour this pioneering biography describes his creative work and multifarious translations, his inconvenient addictions, his tormented private life, and his many friendships in England and in France.

Where does the book belong? Does it enshrine the soul of a nation, or is it a means by which nations talk to one another, sharing ideas, technologies, texts? This book, the first in a two-volume set of original essays, responds to these questions with archive-based case studies of print culture in a number of countries around the world.

This surprising study draws together the disparate fields of postcolonial theory and book history in a challenging and illuminating way.Robert Fraser proposes that we now look beyond the traditional methods of the Anglo-European bibliographic paradigm, and learn to appreciate instead the diversity of shapes that verbal expression has assumed across different societies. This change of attitude will encourage students and researchers to question developmentally conceived models of communication, and move instead to a re-formulation of just what is meant by a book, an author, a text.Fraser illustrates his combined approach with comparative case studies of print, script and speech cultures in South Asia and Africa, before panning out to examine conflicts and paradoxes arising in parallel contexts. The re-orientation of approach and the freshness of view offered by this volume will foster understanding and creative collaboration between scholars of different outlooks, while offering a radical critique to those identified in its concluding section as purveyors of global literary power.

This surprising study draws together the disparate fields of postcolonial theory and book history in a challenging and illuminating way.Robert Fraser proposes that we now look beyond the traditional methods of the Anglo-European bibliographic paradigm, and learn to appreciate instead the diversity of shapes that verbal expression has assumed across different societies. This change of attitude will encourage students and researchers to question developmentally conceived models of communication, and move instead to a re-formulation of just what is meant by a book, an author, a text.Fraser illustrates his combined approach with comparative case studies of print, script and speech cultures in South Asia and Africa, before panning out to examine conflicts and paradoxes arising in parallel contexts. The re-orientation of approach and the freshness of view offered by this volume will foster understanding and creative collaboration between scholars of different outlooks, while offering a radical critique to those identified in its concluding section as purveyors of global literary power.

Previous studies of African poetry have tended to concentrate either on its political content or on its relationship to various European schools. This book examines West African poetry in English and French against the background of oral poetry in the vernacular. Do the roots of such poetry lie in Africa or in Europe? In committing their work to writing, do poets lose more than they gain? Can the immediacy of oral performance ever be recovered? Robert Fraser's account of two centuries of West African verse examines its subjugation to a succession of international styles: from the heroic couplet to the austerity of experimental Modernism. Successive chapters take us through the Négritude movement and the emergence of anglophone free verse in the 1950s to the rediscovery in recent years of the neglected springs of orality, which is the subject of the concluding chapter.

Late Victorian quest romance has recently attracted renewed attention from critics. Much of this interest has centred on its politics of gender, and its vision of Empire. This book prefers to view the genre in the light of debates within the then nascent sciences of Anthropology and Archaeology. Starting with a discussion of the nature of romance, it goes on to interpret the encounters with lost or buried pasts. By describing encounters with remote places and times, so it argues, these authors were asking their readers disconcerting questions about humankind, and about their own culture’s institutions and beliefs. The book ends by considering the implications of such a view for the whole colonial enterprise.

This first ever full-length study of Ben Okri's life and work is based on twenty years of friendship and close attention to his texts. It argues that his writing is best appreciated against the background of his early exposure to the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70) and his attempts since then to forge a medium of conciliation through literature. "We live by stories", Okri once wrote, "We also live in them". Following him from Lagos to London and from obscurity to recognition, Fraser interprets Okri's successive books as refashionings of his inner and outer narrative space. Okri's fiction, essays and poems beckon us through the shabby but vibrant streets of the strife-ridden metropolis towards a potential city of justice, sincerity and peace.

In the formative years of Ontario's history, the law loomed large, as a profession, a preoccupation of legislators, a subject of debate and controversy, and a force that many citizens found themselves up against. Robert Fraser has drawn from the pages of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography the stories of sixty people who played a key role in the legal history of Upper Canada.Told in a readable style that has been much praised, these profiles contain information that bears the authoritative stamp of the DCB volumes from which they come. They add a valuable personal dimension to Ontario's legal history.

In 1899 Marcel Proust read a translation of Ruskin's The Lamp of Memory in a Belgian magazine. In between lay a period of intermittent enthusiasm for Victorian writing: a period which saw the refurbishment of Proust's method and a fundamental rethinking of his views.

Where does the book belong? Does it enshrine the soul of a nation, or is it a means by which nations talk to one another, sharing ideas, technologies, texts? This book, the first in a two-volume set of original essays, responds to these questions with archive-based case studies of print culture in a number of countries around the world.

This book is based on the author's published research and uses the principal-agent methodology as a consistent framework for analysing and evaluating the development of the European Union's agricultural land use policy as it has evolved over the last two decades from voluntary set-aside to "compliance" set-aside to environmental stewardship. The book begins with an introduction to the principal-agent methodology and to the historical development of agricultural land use policy in the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy). There are also literature-based introductions which contextualise each major part of the book (Parts A and B). The book concludes with some reflections and forward-looking comments on policy design lessons from this research, which will be of use to students, academics and policymakers.

Good biosecurity policy decisions, particularly in relation to plant industry protection, are of ever increasing importance. Growth in the speed and diversity of trade, the effects of climate change and the resultant spread of pests and diseases continue to highlight this. This book contains an introduction to the issues confronting plant biosecurity policymakers and how the economic risks of invasive species can be assessed over time. It describes both probability models that show what might happen if species 'invade' a region and values models that help decide what management actions should be taken.As the first book of its kind focusing on a comprehensive range of policies, case studies and applications, Plant Biosecurity Policy Evaluation is perfect for biosecurity policy makers, decision-support specialists, advanced students of agricultural studies, public policy and invasive species research.

"This well-written and highly readable book makes a major contribution to advancing our understanding of the contribution that economics can make to analysing the impact of international trade policies for environmental risks … Regardless of the likelihood that the current WTO dispute settlement procedures can be changed in the way suggested by the authors of this book, it is essential reading for those interested in the contribution that economics can make to advancing our understanding of the implications of international trade law for environmental issues."Journal of Agricultural EconomicsWe live in a world that is increasingly dependent on international trade in a context of substantial regional/national political tensions. Adding to this is an emerging understanding and concern about the social impact of biosecurity and ecosystem services risks associated with such trade. As the key international trade 'arbiter', the World Trade Organization (WTO) has never before faced such complexity within its decision-making remit.With increasing numbers of bilateral and regional agreements, as well as new developments emerging such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) initiated by multi-national corporations in 2018, the WTO needs to implement ways of reinforcing its legitimacy and enhancing its relevance.This book provides an original analysis of these linked developments and delivers a timely contribution to resolving environment-related international trade disputes. It provides a clear roadmap for improving WTO trade dispute resolution procedures so both biosecurity and ecosystem services risks are considered in evaluating the social, economic and environmental impacts of international trade proposals. In so doing, the WTO should deliver enhanced multilateral social welfare.

"Without Contraries is no progression." - William BlakeBertram and Eustace are brothers. Bertram is extroverted, practical, a celebrity and a social success. Eustace is introverted, scholarly and shyly oblique. They understand neither themselves nor one another. Instead, they tell one another stories.Only two people see through their defences: their cousin Mimi, a retired violinist who lives in 'Tartini's Rest', and Kariba, a literary genius from Africa, Bertram's nemesis and Eustace's fraternal friend...

Marrying life-writing with classical reception, this book examines ancient biography and its impact on subsequent ages.

Marrying life-writing with classical reception, this book examines ancient biography and its impact on subsequent ages.